Other
Scientific paper
Jul 1999
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1999hst..prop.8258b&link_type=abstract
HST Proposal ID #8258
Other
Hst Proposal Id #8258 Solar System
Scientific paper
The large number of collisions thought to have taken place in the primordial Kuiper belt suggests that many Kuiper belt objects {KBOs} could have suffered binary-forming collisions similar to that which formed the Pluto - Charon binary. Detection of such KBO binaries would allow us to measure KBO masses, would help us to understand the past collisional environment of the Kuiper belt, and would give a context to the otherwise unique-seeming formation of the Pluto - Charon binary. We propose a STIS CCD search for binarity in three known KBOs. The three we target include the largest {1996 TO66}, the closest {1996 TP66}, and the most eccentric {1996 TL66} known. We have performed deep searches around each of these KBOs with the Keck telescope and have not detected distant satellites; any satellites must therefore be closer than about 0.5 arcseconds. Collisionally formed satellites analogous to Charon should be at distances of only 0.2 arcseconds; their detection will require t he resolving power and sensitivity of HST. We have carefully constructed an observing program optimized to detect any such very close satellites.
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